Khachanov leaves Dimitrov with no chance of qualifying for Turin | ATP Tour

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Khachanov leaves Dimitrov with no chance of qualifying for Turin

His rival in the Paris semifinals will be Ugo Humbert

November 01, 2024

Karen Khachanov has finally overcome the obstacle called Grigor Dimitrov. After losing his first four duels against the Bulgarian, the No. 21 in the PIF ATP Rankings was able to beat him for the first time by winning this Friday with sets of 6-2, 6-3 in the quarterfinals of the Rolex Paris Masters.

This result has more effects. Khachanov reaches a 12-1 record in the last three weeks and achieves his fifth qualification to the Masters 1000 semifinals. In addition, he leaves Dimitrov without any options to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin.

The Bulgarian, seeded eighth this week, needed to advance to the final in Paris to beat eighth-placed Álex de Miñaur in the PIF ATP Live Race to Turin and to be very close to qualifying for the season-ending tournament that he won in his debut in 2017.

However, he could not show the spark that this week led him to win tough battles like the one he fought with local Arthur Rinderknech the night before (he lost 3/5 in the third set tie-break). While Khachanov, who won in his debut this week by saving match point (d. O’Connell), played a perfect match.

The 2018 champion of this tournament did not even face breakout opportunities during the 68-minute duel. Furthermore, he broke four times and committed only eleven unforced errors (against 27 for Dimitrov).

“I started strong from the baseline and tried to put pressure from the beginning,” Khachanov said. “I was able to break him in the first game and take the lead, but then I noticed that he wasn’t feeling 100 percent. But he wanted to play. and I respect that. You have to give him credit for that.”

His next rival will be local Ugo Humbert, with whom he has a 1-0 record after winning the quarterfinals at the Tokyo Olympics.

Humbert avoids the decisive in Paris
This Friday, Ugo Humbert became the first Frenchman to be in the semi-finals of the Rolex Paris Masters since Julien Benneteau in 2017, after beating Australian Jordan Thompson in the quarter-finals with sets of 6-2, 7-6(4).

One day after beating the Spanish Carlos Alcaraz in three sets, which meant the biggest victory of his career, the 26-year-old left-hander returned to the center of the last Masters 1000 of the season to star in another impeccable presentation in front of his audience.

His performance during the hour and 36 minutes of play only had one blip, when he had two match points from the rest in the tenth game of the second set. In addition to not being able to take advantage of them, he lost his serve in the next game.

However, he regained control immediately and broke the Australian when he served for the set. In the tie-break they committed the same number of unforced errors, but Humbert added more winners (2-0), so he won to leave his Lexus ATP HeadToHead with Thompson at 1-1.

The No. 18 in the PIF ATP Rankings (in April this year he was No. 13, the highest of his career) is one more win away from rising to No. 14 in the live rankings, and two away from setting a new record in the PIF ATP Rankings. He would be, in the worst case, the new No. 11 in the world.